The One Thing
by Alba Nix
Summary: Noll isn’t too pleased when his brother gets his first girlfriend and the attention’s not all on him! Unfortunately, he has to learn to compromise... NOVEL SPOILERS. For YamiKakyuu.


Title:** The One Thing**Author:** Aishoka  
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Rating:** PG  
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Summary:_Noll isn't too pleased when his brother gets his first girlfriend and the attention's not all on him! Unfortunately, he has to learn to compromise...  
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**Dedicated to**: Yami-sama (YamiKakyuu)**, _who was my first ever friend on LJ, who is fanqueen, and who is generally just awesome! I wanted to write KHR (and I would have done lime, too), so I'm sorry it's only GH, but that's the only thing I'm versed and confident enough in to write something good for you! So, my basic message is, Happy nth Birthday, Yami-sama! (XD) I know it's over a month late, but I hope you enjoy it despite my tardiness... and despite the fact that it turned out bittersweet when it was supposed to be funny..._

Author's Note: _It's not actually impossible; it just wasn't mentioned! I mean, Noll wouldn't mention it, would he...?_

**The One Thing**

Noll forgave his brother for almost everything he did, simply because he was his brother. That was reason enough. They were telepathically linked; they could hear each other's thoughts, so why bother making those thoughts spiteful? He'd be able to grumble again soon enough, because Gene was always doing things that annoyed Noll. Bringing noisy friends round to the house, putting the volume on the television too high, reading aloud his stupid _novels _– novels! – or trying to get Noll to sample _sweets_ or some other 'delicacy' were just a few of his bad habits. Yet Noll 'forgot' them every time, because they were part of his brother, and he loved his brother.

But there was one thing that Noll had subconsciously known that he would _not _tolerate, and that was standing right in front of him.

"Hi, Noll!" Gene greeted with his customary eagerness. "I brought somebody I want you to meet! This is April." Saying this, he gestured to a girl standing beside him. She seemed to be about the same age as Noll and Gene – fifteen – and had red-brown hair. She was pretty enough, but Noll wasn't really thinking about that.

"Hello," he said dully. At least when Gene normally brought friends home, they were boys. Girls were even more annoying. It took them at least five times longer to understand that Noll didn't want to be talked to or bothered – and with them, talking amounted to bothering.

"This is my brother, Noll, whom I was telling you about," Gene said to April. Noll had a sudden vision of _Bambi _in his head and scowled. He hated Disney. And he hated 'April Showers' too, song as well as the real thing.

April looked at him with trepidation. He gathered he wasn't being very hospitable, but he didn't feel the need to. Gene was disturbing the peace of their family home yet again, and with a _girl_! Who needed girls? They were just nuisances. He caught the warning look that his twin was giving him, but he ignored it. He wasn't about to act pleasant just to impress Gene's lady friend. He was equally grumpy when Gene brought boys home – male or female, monkeys jumped around and got on Noll's nerves.

"April, I just need to ask Noll something a minute, okay?" Gene said cheerfully. He gestured for Noll to follow him. Idly, Noll did so.

"Do you think you can make a bit of an effort?" Gene asked. The worst thing was, he didn't sound particularly angry, just disappointed. "You don't have to be _so _hostile towards her. I'm not asking you to be best friends. I just want you to be polite."

"Why? Just because she's a girl? Girls are even more annoying, Gene. You're never bothered when I ignore your normal friends."

"April isn't my friend, though," Gene said in a low voice. "She's my girlfriend."

Despite himself, Noll's jaw dropped. _Girlfriend_? Gene had gone and got himself a _girlfriend_? He felt the fury and the sadness building up inside him. This was the biggest betrayal possible.

A _girlfriend_? He just couldn't seem to get his head around the word; it was almost foreign, a word in one of the few languages he wasn't studying. He understood _girl _and _friend_ perfectly well, even _female _friend, but not girlfriend, the two words stuck together. It didn't make sense. It was a hybrid. They weren't supposed to exist.

"Noll..." Gene began.

Noll didn't even listen. He just turned around and stormed in the direction of his bedroom. _Their _bedroom – this thought made him change direction completely and head for the study.

In his head, he heard Gene sigh.

OOO

There was no knock on the study door, but Noll knew by the hesitant steps and the lack of presence in his head that it wasn't Gene. That meant it was his mother – which was even worse. He braced himself for the lecture that he would have to pretend to be listening to.

"Oliver," Luella Davis said calmly. "I'd like to talk to you."

"You _are _talking to me, Mother," Noll answered flatly.

Luella sighed and sat down. "Always so smart. It's going to get you into trouble one of these days." She looked across at her adopted son and smiled wistfully. "Noll, could you please try to be a little more tolerant of your brother's friends?"

"She's not his friend! She's his girlfriend!" Noll exploded. "What am I supposed to do? Don't you understand how awkward it would be? I look exactly like Gene; isn't she going to be a little freaked out if I'm nice to her? What if she thinks I'm him? _I'm _not interested in girls! I don't want her to start loving and kissing _me_!"

"You wouldn't have to do _anything _other than _explain _to her that you weren't Gene," his mother said comfortingly, but still rather sternly.

"I shouldn't have to bother," Noll said sulkily, returning to the book he had taken out.

"That's just it. Gene is always willing to do anything for you, but you won't bend in the slightest, will you? Not even to make Gene happy." His mother really sounded angry now.

"I'm happy when it's just Gene and me," Noll protested. "Why isn't he? Isn't it enough to have a twin brother?"

Luella massaged her temples. "Noll, you know Gene loves you. You can't judge him for not wanting to miss out on normal human experiences! Just because you don't want them, doesn't mean that Gene isn't allowed to have them either."

"But what am I supposed to do while Gene's off having fun with his _girlfriend_?" Noll said unyieldingly.

"Read one of the many books you keep saying you _absolutely need_. You're always saying you don't have enough books, but then when Gene is out with his friends and would rather you stayed away if you don't want to participate, instead of hanging around like a bad smell, you don't read them. You just stick your nose in one when Gene isn't busy, and wants to talk to you. Make your mind up, Noll. You ignore him and then complain when his attention isn't centred on you, and _you're _the bad-natured one."

"I just like us being in the same room. It makes it more comfortable. I don't want to listen to him going on about some stupid interest of his. Novels, sport, TV, whatever. I have better things to do."

"Well, perhaps Gene has better things to do than wait for you to be in a good mood," Luella snapped. "If you're not going to just be polite to guests, then you're grounded."

Noll smirked. He loved being grounded. It meant –

"That means no books, no pens or paper, no computers, and no visiting; and Gene won't be allowed in the same room, either." There was a pause. "I'm being cruel to be kind, Noll. You need to learn to have manners."

The scientist groaned and rested his forehead on the table as his mother walked out. He would have to socialise. Joy, oh joy.

OOO

_One month later_

"Would you pass the salt, please, Noll?"

April's disgustingly high voice rang out across the table. Clenching his free hand under the table, Noll picked up the salt cellar and made himself put it in front of her calmly, giving her a frosty nod when she thanked him.

She and Gene had been 'going out' – what a stupid phrase – for _four whole weeks _and this was the eleventh time he had been forced to endure her presence at the dinner table. She was like a cloud – a fluffy white cloud, but one that ruined an otherwise clear sky all the same. What annoyed him most was that he couldn't even criticise her. He had been searching for all of the preceding month for something bad about her, something he could use that would finally convince Gene to get rid of her. After all, a high voice 

didn't actually warrant exile. But no: she was nice, she was polite, she was charming, she had a sense of humour, she seemed to be able to hold a conversation (none of which Noll considered particularly valuable qualities, except the fact that she could hold a conversation, but which, to his chagrin, everybody else did), his parents liked her (winning their favour was hardly a mean feat, however) and Gene enjoyed her company (this was considered a good quality when only he, Noll, possessed it). All in all, she was his worst nightmare.

"Noll, April and I are going on a picnic next week," Gene said suddenly. "Would you like to come?"

A wave of horror swept through Noll's body, but he felt his mother's warning gaze on him. He forced a pleasant response. "I wouldn't really want to interrupt. You might feel you had to talk to me instead of to each other," he said in a neutral tone. He felt the intensity of the glare decrease a little, as he had kept his temper – about which he was torn between feeling proud and disappointed.

"Oh, no, one of my friends will come as well!" April said brightly. "She said she wanted to meet Gene properly, but she felt like she'd be a third wheel, so Gene suggested that we ask you to come too!"

Noll remembered his mother's warning about being grounded and put his hands under the table so that no one would see him wringing them together. He looked between Gene and April. The former had a pleading look on the fact, while the latter's was apprehensive. Noll glanced sideways out of the corner of his eye; his mother's mouth was set into a firm line.

_Please, Noll, it's just this once, _a voice said in Noll's head.

"All right, I'll come," he growled, unable to produce a better tone. He was accepting, wasn't he? They couldn't ask for much more.

April squealed in delight and clapped her hands. Noll refrained from rolling his eyes. Gene smiled in gratitude, and Noll merely raised his eyebrows slightly at him.

_Thanks, Noll_, his brother's voice again floated across the table into his head as they continued eating.

_I hope you haven't set me up with a bimbo, Gene_, Noll said grumpily. _I have a feeling that this friend that's coming along is jealous of April and was delighted on hearing that you have a twin brother._

_You're probably not far wrong, but she'll be disappointed, won't she? We're nothing like each other in personality_, Gene pointed out.

_If she's as shallow as most girls, she probably won't care, _Noll retorted.

_April isn't shallow_, was Gene's rather vehement reply.

Noll bit back a nasty remark and instead said, _I said most girls, not all girls._

Truthfully, April wasn't shallow. There were many things he didn't like about her – mostly things that others would compliment her on, and yet that Noll found annoying – but she couldn't be accused of being shallow. She genuinely appreciated Gene's personality, and, for that matter, didn't particularly like Noll's. That didn't really concern Noll, as he didn't like her either. What worried him was whether Gene preferred it to his. Yes, he was rather grouchy and perhaps horrible sometimes, but brothers were supposed to forgive each other, right? He forgave Gene's faults.

_Don't you ever see yourself finding a girlfriend? _Gene asked.

Asking unwanted questions being one such fault, Noll thought to himself.

_No. I like the quiet. A girlfriend would be ringing me up every five minutes, asking me when we could go and see one of those films... What do they call them? Something to do with ducks?_

_Chick flicks, Noll? _Gene's thought had a rather amused tone behind it.

_Whatever, _Noll replied idly, spearing a Brussels sprout and pretending it was April's head.

OOO

They were on a train into the countryside. Noll and Gene sat next to each other, with April and her friend opposite them. Noll had his nose firmly _in_ and his attention firmly _on _a book about the 'science v religion' debate, which he had just bought, and hidden from his mother, of course.

"Do you ever stop reading, Noll?" April asked.

_She wants you to talk to her friend, _Gene informed him unnecessarily.

_I translated that myself; it wasn't hard, _Noll answered.

Reluctantly, he raised his eyes from the book, as he knew he had to speak for April to understand a response. "I like to read as much as I can. I want to go to Cambridge when I'm eighteen," he said with a civility that surprised even him.

He supposed that he had not made some feral snarl at April because she had asked him about something that he liked, rather than the usual infuriating, "Which films do you like, Noll?" "What's your favourite colour, Noll?" or tactless, "Don't you have a girlfriend, Noll?" "How come you never go out with Gene and his friends, Noll?"

"Where's Cambridge?" April's friend asked. Her name was something typical like Abigail. Yes, in fact, it _was _Abigail. Noll _hated _that name as much as he hated her and more so because it was hers.

"Near London," he said coldly, going back to his book.

_Be grateful I didn't tell her she should work harder on her Geography, _he warned Gene, sensing that his brother was about to admonish him.

Thankfully, Gene remained silent. And to Noll's great relief, there was no "Where's London?" in response to his answer to Abigail's question.

After an almost silent journey interrupted only by Gene and April's attempts to make idle conversation, they arrived at their destination. Gene carried the picnic basket, and the blanket was foisted upon Noll, who took it without complaining, as he knew Gene would probably just tell his mother. April and "Abby", as she called herself, chatted away in the background about the things Noll avoided girls for: clothes, make-up, films, novels (probably Mills and Boon, but Noll hated to pay attention) and such topics. Occasionally Gene made a contribution that actually sounded well informed. Noll kept both his mouth and mind firmly shut.

"Now make sure you don't spoil it," his mother had said. "You've been doing really well at being nice to April, so try to be polite to her friend, too."

That was proving to be easier said than done. While April was tolerable enough that Noll didn't want to use his powers to slam her into a tree, the same could not be said for Abigail. He didn't know why April was her friend, and that was the closest to complimenting Gene's _girlfriend _as he would get.

"Let's stop here," April declared when they came to a nice spot in the shade of a tree. Noll noticed for the first time that she had been carrying a map. Begrudgingly he gave her credit for being able to navigate.

Noll put the blanket down – April smoothed it, as he simply opened it and dumped it on the grass – and Gene opened the basket. Luella had packed them ham sandwiches, crisps, two biscuits and an apple each, and cartons of orange juice. Fortunately, Noll didn't dislike any of these things, so he was able to focus on eating them to get Abigail's annoying tittering out of his head.

"Let's play truth or dare!" the aforementioned demon suggested. Noll nearly spat out the last chunk of his sandwich.

_Now, now, Noll, just pick Truth – they'll only ask you simple questions. It's all they ask me, _Gene put in. Noll scowled. His brother had got in first this time.

"Gene first," Abigail said with a grin. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare," Gene said after deliberation. Noll gaped at him; how could he be so stupid as to agree to let girls order him about?

"Um..." Abigail thought for a few seconds. Noll was surprised it didn't take her a year. "I know! You have to kiss April!"

'How unimaginative' was Noll's first thought, and then he realised he would have to watch this, and his expression froze. He couldn't keep a little bit of horror from showing.

"April told me you haven't had your first kiss yet," Abigail taunted.

Noll risked a glance at April; she was blushing bright red. Gene's face wasn't any paler.

"Behind the tree," Noll said hastily. Everyone turned to look at him.

_I thought you weren't interested in this sort of thing, Noll, _Gene's voice said, surprised.

_I'm not, _Noll insisted_. But I know enough to say that a first kiss is supposed to be, a) private, b) relatively special, and besides, I don't want to see._

"How will we know they've done it though?" Abigail whined.

"I'll just know. He's my twin brother," Noll said mechanically. "We'll just have to trust them enough to let them do it without you – us – gawking at them." He said 'us' to be diplomatic.

Gene and April stood up and walked hesitantly behind the tree. After a quick glance to make sure Abigail wasn't looking at them, Naru pulled a knife out of the bottom of the basket and began methodically cutting his apple into slices.

He hated the idea of Gene and April kissing – although he was surprised they hadn't already – because it cemented their relationship, so why had he just made it better for them by suggesting they go behind the tree? He told himself it was because he didn't want to _watch _Gene succumb to the wiles of evil girls. He wasn't being nice; not at all.

OOO

"Thanks, Noll," Gene said out loud into the darkness as they lay back on their beds.

"'Night, Gene," Noll replied. He had already said it once.

"No, really, thanks. You were really nice today," Gene persisted.

Noll scoffed. He wasn't vain enough to pretend he was something he wasn't; he was already amazing, 'being nice' wasn't an accomplishment he needed or wanted. "You mean I didn't bite Abigail's head off? I suppose you're right. I rather excelled myself."

"I'm not talking about Abigail. I didn't really like her either, she was annoying. But you told April and me to go behind the tree to make it more special. That was really nice of you. I thought..." Gene didn't finish the sentence, but he involuntarily _thought _of its end. "_...that you'd want to ruin it,_"swam around Noll's mind.

The scientist let out a sigh. "I wouldn't want to ruin it. Just because I think it's stupid doesn't mean I should ruin it. _No one _would want _Abigail _gaping at them. Getting her to look away isn't going to stop you going out with her, is it?"

"Is that what you really want?" Gene asked softly. "Do you want me to stop going out with her?"

"It's not _her, _Gene," Noll said reluctantly. "She's alright as far as girls go, I suppose. It's just the idea of you having a girlfriend. It seems weird."

"You should get one, and then you'd see how it isn't really that weird," Gene suggested. There was no malice in his voice.

"Oh, like Abigail?" Noll asked, and they both laughed, even Noll. "See. We're talking. We always used to talk. Now we don't."

"That isn't because of April, though," Gene said gently. "We already didn't talk. I started going out and you started getting into books. If I tried to talk to you, you'd tell me to be quiet because you were trying to read."

Noll opened his mouth to say something against this, but he realised that Gene was right. He'd heard it from his mother, but somehow it only became true when Gene said it. He _did _tell Gene to be quiet while he was reading, but it wasn't because he didn't want him to be there. He didn't know how to explain this. He wasn't one for pouring out his soul willy-nilly. If Gene felt something he just said so, but Noll wasn't like that. It was one of the many ways in which they were different.

"That's not because I want you to go away," he said forcedly. "We're brothers. We're supposed to stick together. I just want us to exist harmoniously. You know, you do whatever you like doing, and I do whatever I like doing. Sometimes we tell each other about what it is we're looking at. Camaraderie. We don't have to talk. You think we should just sit chatting all the time. I know you inside out, Gene. You don't need to tell me things like which film you went to see the other day. I could probably guess what it's about."

Gene was silent for a few minutes. "Yeah, but what _I _like doing is _talking to people_," he said eventually, with a little hesitation. "I like company. And I really like your company best, but you don't like _anyone's _company."

"I like yours," Noll said immediately. "I just don't think _company _and _conversation _are the same thing."

"Both are important to me, though," Gene said sadly.

"That's what I don't understand. I don't get why anyone would _need _to talk to someone to amuse themselves."

"No one needs it. But God made us to co-exist, didn't He?"

Noll rolled his eyes. Gene had taken up their parents' religious nature, while Noll had steadfastly clung onto science. Gene talked to ghosts to help them; Noll liked to study them. In that respect, they were polar opposites. Noll didn't know how Gene could see something so fascinating and focus on its _well-being_. That could wait until later, when they knew what it was doing there, how it got there, etc. Of course, the first thing Gene asked when he contacted a ghost and Noll readied his pen and paper was, "Do you have any last requests that you didn't get to ask for?" Sometimes it made their parents cry. It just made Noll impatient.

"That doesn't work," Noll said without realising it at first. "Ghosts aren't supposed to be here, but they are. Rule broken. So people don't have to co-exist."

"_I _don't understand how _you _can live without the warmth of human companionship," Gene said, in response partly to Noll's first statement of lack of comprehension and partly to his declaration of his opinion concerning the presence of the supernatural.

"I could live without everyone in the world if you stayed in it," Noll said sincerely. "You seem to want more than me, though."

Gene sighed profoundly. "Noll, I know you'll always be here. We'll always have each other. It's like, say a duck lives in a pond that's linked to other ponds. It wants to go and explore the other ponds, and it does, but it always comes back to its own pond, because that's its home. You're the one thing that's most important to me, Noll. There's no harm in liking other, less important things when you'll always come back to the main one."

Noll felt a pang of guilt, but he didn't push it away in anger as he normally did when it snaked its way around his heart. He deserved it, so he let it stay. He couldn't bring himself to reply, though; instead, he gave a silent apology by reaching across the small gap between the two beds and squeezing Gene's hand.

They went to sleep peacefully.

OOO

_Eight months later_

Luella Davis hugged her son for the tenth time and told him to be careful for what seemed like the hundredth. Eugene smiled, shrugging off her worries, and told her, for what seemed like the hundredth time, that he was going to be fine. Luella insisted, however, on checking that the luggage tag on his suitcase was safely secured.

"Good luck, son," Professor Martin Davis said, clapping Gene on the back. "I'm sure you'll do me proud. Bring me back all your notes; I'm going to want to read them."

"I will, Dad," Gene said firmly.

"Gene, do you really have to go to Japan?" April's voice was soft at Noll's side, but the misery he was feeling dulled its annoyance a little. "I'm going to miss you."

Gene strode forward, his confident smile faltering a little, and gave April a hug. Noll sighed as he waited for his turn. Of course, they had said goodbye to each other the night before – Noll had thrown a tantrum, Gene had promised to come back soon, they had hugged a lot – but still, Noll was Gene's _brother_. He had always been and would always be his brother. April was only his girlfriend of nine months (and goodness knows how many more kisses after the first), after all.

"I'll send you lots of postcards and bring you presents, and I'll be back before you know it," Gene declared. Noll averted his eyes as April sniffed; she was obviously going to be drenching Gene's shirt.

"Gene," Professor Davis said kindly, "they're calling for boarding now."

Gene released April – Noll made the mistake of looking over as he kissed her – and let her run into Luella's arms. Gene himself approached Noll, a wistful smile on his face.

"You really should have come, you know," he said sadly.

Noll shook his head and forced himself not to speak his opinions on this trip; Gene knew them all too well. "I'd only cramp your style," he replied instead, resulting in Gene's eyes crinkling with laughter at the edges.

"I'm really going to miss you. It's going to be strange without you telling me off all the time," Gene said.

"It's going to be stranger without you driving me mad all the time!" Noll countered. "But I'm going to miss you, probably more," he confessed. "You'll be having fun."

"Nah. You're the one thing I can't have fun without, Noll. My idiot scientist brother," Gene smiled.

Noll allowed himself to smile back as his father made his 'hurry up' gesture. "Bring me lots of books home. And take care of yourself."

"I will, I promise." Gene grinned, and ruffled Noll's hair. "I love you, Noll."

Tears stung the back of Noll's eyes, and he willed them away, but he could sense that his eyes still turned a little glassy. "I love you too, Gene."

The brothers enveloped each other in a hug. Noll wasn't sure who squeezed tighter, but he knew that they were both crying slightly when they pulled away. He fiercely brushed away his own tears as he watched his brother walk up the escalator. Gene turned to wave, and Noll raised his hand. In a second, he had disappeared.

He heard April's girlish sob at his shoulder and he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. With clenched teeth and an unspeakable amount of reluctance, he put his arm around her and patted her on the back. For Gene's sake.

OOO

_Approximately three years later_

Noll stood at his brother's grave for the last time before he would return to Japan, his scarf blowing in the wind. _Eugene Davis, beloved son, brother and friend_, the headstone read. It was far too early for this; they would have to wait far too long to see each other again.

"Hello, Noll," a small voice said at his side.

With a jump, Noll turned around, wondering who it could possibly be. He saw a girl with short, red-brown hair, her eyes red with dried tears, a small smile of recognition on her face.

"Mai?" he said instinctively.

"Wrong month," the girl said, shaking her head. "April."

"April," Noll repeated numbly.

She glanced at the grave over Noll's shoulder. "You didn't want him to go, did you?" she said quietly.

"No, I didn't," Noll said darkly. "At least... he's at peace now."

April sniffed and pulled a tissue out of her pocket to wipe her eyes. The tissue was shrivelled up as though she had already used it a million times. "I could have loved him," she professed. "I think if we'd had a bit longer... Do you think he could have loved me?"

Without mentioning that Gene would now love someone else for two hundred years and a fair assessment wasn't actually possible, Noll could at least tell her the truth. "Yes, I think so," he said.

He nodded quickly to her before she could ask him anything else, and glanced at the grave one last time, before returning to Lin.

"Love was the one thing I didn't understand," he said to his assistant.

"I think you understand it a little now," Lin said. "And I think that's the one thing Gene would have really wanted."


End file.
